captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. in haiti, the search for survivors of the earthquake continues with some still being pulled from the rubble. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, thousands continue to wait for food, water and medical aid. we get the latest from port-au- prince, and talk to the u.s. ambassador there. >> brown: tom bearden reports on the surge in donations to help victims of the quake via cellphones. >> i got a text message that said please donate $10 to the haiti relief fund.

all's i had to do is respond to the text which i did. >> suarez: then, new violence in afghanistan: margaret warner reports on taliban attacks in the heart of kabul, killing at least 12. >> brown: the surprisingly tight senate race in massachusetts to fill the vacancy left by the late edward kennedy. we get an update. >> suarez: and a martin luther king holiday conversation about black power and black leaders with historian peniel joseph. >> what's interesting is that it's the black power movement, self-determination to get black faces in higher places that really leads obama to even try to run for president. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's pbs newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by: >> will your savings be enough to fund your retirement? what will happen if your spouse outlives you by many years? what will happen if you outlive your savings? pacific life knows that

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dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: more troops and more aid reached haiti today, but many remained desperate, as distribution problems and fears of violence continued. we begin our coverage with two on-the-ground reports from independent television news. first, bill neely on the race to save lives. >> reporter: the ruins of haiti, the signs aren't good. it's day 6. the diggers tear at the rubble making survival beneath unlikely.

the scavengers at the banks search for money not the living. one man looks on. roger still believes his wife, a bank worker, just might be alive. he rushes in every time ground is cleared. this time someone hears a noise. he calls for silence and then for his wife janette. >> she's there. she's alive. >> reporter: "okay, she's there, she's alive" he says. they scrape away stones to expose a small hole and allow the first light to reach the woman in six days, her husband overwhelmed. "i can hear janette talking. i put a microphone in and asked her if she's injured. "yes," she says, "my fingers are broken." (speaking french)

she tells me she needs water. it would be a great pleasure. i'm thirsty and i can't see, she says. then a message for her husband. (speaking french) "even if i die, i love you so much. don't forget it." the risk of her dying remains. not her husband nor anyone here has the equipment to get her out. would you like to take a look? suddenly help arrives. firefighters from los angeles. >> right there. >> reporter: they push a tiny camera into the hole. janette is revealed. her head is moving. >> all right. we're going to get you something to drink first. >> reporter: they get her water and then begin cutting in to the cables and beams around her. then our first clear sight of her. dust in her eyes, smiling,

wincing. but alive. >> it's amazing. she's in incredible shape for the time period she's been in there. >> reporter: there is just one major worry now. an aftershock. >> we may not have a whole lot of time. once it goes, it goes. >> reporter: on a camera, they've seen janette's hand pinned under a beam. free it and she's free. a rescuer reaches her hand. she is in pain. >> hang in there, janette. we're almost there. >> reporter: but within three hours of first hearing her voice, she emerges. >> 1, 2, 3. >> reporter: her first words thank you, god. and then an astonishing moment. (singing) >> reporter: the words of her song "don't be afraid of death." she told me she always thought she'd survived but she

wondered why this had happened to her. did you think you would live, janette? did you think you would live? >> yes, why not? >> reporter: she is alive. for her husband it's a miracle. but her survival is the exception in a city of death. she drove away as if nothing had happened to see for herself the horror that had been hidden from her. >> suarez: transportation and distribution bottlenecks continue to choke the massive international aid effort. some 7,000 u.s. troops will be in country or offshore by this evening. the u.n. secretary-general asked the security council for additional police and peacekeepers to join the 9,000 already on the ground. their mission: to break up the chokeholds at the airport and the port so the assistance get where it's needed. jon snow of itn has more. >> reporter: finally, toward sunset, water.

it comes in the form of a vast but still inadequate water tanker. they have queued for it all day. this woman in the yellow t-shirt and her neighbors. it is their most fundamental need. this is the first time they've had a chance to get it this way. but even a truck this size simply doesn't have enough. and this woman is one of the many who don't get any at all. she and her friend maria, eight months pregnant, this is the only drinking water. all other water they have to buy on the black market. in this district of port-au-prince, they grew up and where angleine has had her own children, just five minutes from the presidential palace. as she leads me to her ruined home we reach the private water seller.

angleine hands him her bucket. this is home now. anywhere on this concrete basketball pitch. it's the wounded you see first. an old lady. an untrained medic trying to strap a cardboard and wooden splint on to her broken leg. the pain is unimaginable. but she utters not a sound. close by on a bed spread, the local pastor, traumatically injured when his church fell in upon him. >> he needs a doctor very urgently. >> yeah. >> reporter: is there no doctor? >> no doctor at all. >> reporter: no doctor has been here. no nurse? >> no. >> reporter: how many people are you looking after?

>> 306, he says, of whom 30 are seriously injured. one, this older woman hit in the face by masonry. her eye completely enveloped by the punctured bruising. she desperately needs drugs and anti-septics. the place is highly insecure too. >> he said it was going to send 10,000 g.i.s here. i would like to tell them please give us security. last night robbers tried to come here. >> reporter: he said he recognized them as having come from the ruptured prison. there are armed gangsters about he told me as american helicopters moved through the horizon it was u.s. aid that paid for this basketball pitch years ago. but six days on from the quake, no official of any kind has been here. as we leave, angleine urges up to go up in the piles and find

her dead relatives while 100 feet below an older woman signals three corpses in her house almost certainly three people she love as and lived with. she won't come out. the stench hangs everywhere. another 200 meters on and an even bigger count. a vision of haiti. a thousand people crammed into a tiny wedge between what once were their flats. yet even here there is still intimacy. a grandfather with his grandchild on his knee. a mother sleeping. a granny in an immaculately pressed bloused being/a helmed up the hill from the makeshift wash houses and still the wounded of the earthquake. there is also organization. a book of handwritten entries listing the living and the dead compiled by the people in the camp.

no official has been here? >> no, no,. nobody. >> reporter: by chance, just as we were leaving the camp we found the very first officials to visit. the man from the u.n. organization that handles displaced people together with a lady in pink and amazingly one of the two surviving district mayors, the deputy mayor of port-au-prince itself. >> fortunately i'm not the only one alive. there is another mayor. we will work together. >> i cannot say right here what i can do to help. i know that i alone cannot do everything. there are several agencies. >> reporter: you will try to call other agencies. >> we are sharing this information with all other agencies so that every agency can see what they can do. we are not a medical organization. some agencies can give medical help. for them to be able to give

those medical help, they need to know where the people are. >> reporter: the mayor agreed to come to angle ina's camp. he depends on u.n. to carry him around. he told me his house is gone. he too is sleeping on the street where once his home stood. when we reached the basketball pitch, there was angleine again, surprised an official had finally come so soon. the mayor meeted, greeted and did what he might have done at any time. but in this time of grief and disaster what more could he do? >> it's plain to see we don't have any money but we have the will. that's our strength. >> reporter: as night falls outside the temporary barriers the guards at the camps are armed with hammers and machetes. the insecurity is palpable. menace is very much in the air. >> brown: now, the situation as seen by kenneth merten, u.s.

ambassador to haiti. this is his third tour of duty there. i talked with him a short time ago at the port-au-prince airport. ambassador merten, thanks for joining us. what's your assessment of the progress, getting food, water and other material to those most in need? >> i think the progress is reasonably good. i think people have to appreciate the logistical and other physical challenges we're dealing with here. port-au-prince particularly is destroyed. i mean there are certain blocks that are vaporized. there's nothing there but dust and debris. getting down there is very, very difficult. it's been a complicating factor. also there's been the first few days zero communications. you've had to communicate with people by going some place where you think you can actually meet face to face with them. those things are gradually getting better. the relief effort is getting better. saturday we were able to get out 130,000 meals to people to families. we were able to get out 140,000 hygiene kits which

allow people to help clean themselves up a little bit. sunday was better than that. i don't have the exact figures. i'm sure today was significantly better even than that. we're getting there. >> brown: as you know, there have been some concerns and some complaints from other countries and non-governmental organizations about the situation at the airport, whether u.s. military planes were getting priority over aid planes. what's the situation now? what's your response to that? >> again, i think people have to realize the tremendous challenges we're dealing with here. this is a one-runway airport with a relatively small apron. it's not a big place, doesn't work, has not worked or been particularly busy at the best of times. the u.s. military has come in here, assured 24-hour operation. i've never seen the kind of traffic at this airport ever before. i've served here three times.

is it an ideal place to launch humanitarian operation? no, it definitely is not. we could use a lot more runway space and more ramp space but we have to work with what we have. the u.s. military is not putting the priority only on their flights. they've set up a system whereby people have to declare the priority where that is run through other people. we make a determination as to which flights come in. we try to make sure the u.s. military flights come in at night to allow the daytime for other countries and other organizations' flights to come in. i'm afraid i have to disagree with those who really complain about this not being a very good operation. >> brown: let's turn to the security situation. there have been some reports of sporadic violence and looting. how serious is the situation? >> so far i think the looting is... appears to be very, very limited. i got out quite a bit today. i will tell you everything i

saw. i was not right in the center part of port-au-prince but i covered a lot of other territory. i saw people patiently waiting in line, patiently getting food. i saw people on the streets beginning to go about their business. of course you have to remember 90% of the people are still sleeping on the streets. they're homeless. they're just starting to go back to work. they're distraught. but i think while we are very concerned about the potential for violence and disorder, i don't think people need to be overly focused on that. i think it's something we will pay very, very close attention to. obviously we want to protect our people who are delivering the humanitarian aid. but i think people should be aware that the vast majority of haitians here are behaving in a calm and peaceful manner. >> brown: who is in charge of the security and the overall aid situation? you have the haitian government and police. you have the u.n. forces.

you have a growing military group there. who is overseeing it all? how is that working? >> well, in terms of security, number one, it's the haitian police that are in charge. now, they're in a position where their capacity to field a full complement of officers has been severely degraded. they've had many losses as have all elements of haitian society. but they are here. they're on the job. they're on the streets. next in line you have minosa who has been working closely with the haitian police for several years. they too have had their own losses unfortunately. but they are providing security. they're on the street. they're present. they are doing the job. we have forces available here, u.s. troops, to provide security in cases where the haitian police and the u.n. force are unable to provide

it. there's been one or two cases like that so far but it's far from being the majority. thus far minusa has been very capable of doing what they're here to do. that's where we are on that score. on the humanitarian aid, there too, we're seeking obviously to coordinate with the haitians to take into account what their priorities are, where they see the needs is the greatest. but there too we are establishing a coordination unit with minusa that, where we've bringing in other key donors. that's how the humanitarian relief effort will proceed in terms of coordination. it's still a work in progress. that's for sure. but i think it's working reasonably well fuss far. >> brown: there have been concerns, of course, about a bureaucratic bottle neck in

coordination. there have certainly been some concerns raised about, as you said, about the ability of the haitian government to function well at a time like this. you think it's getting better? >> i believe so. certainly the humanitarian aid distribution is getting better. i think something that's important to keep in mind is a lot of the assistance we're providing here is to provide a platform for the haitian government to take control and to provide the services they're here to provide. again i think people need to remember, you have a situation where many ministries simply collapsed. they are in a position of getting themselves together but they're doing the job. >> brown: finally, i know you've had a lot of experience in this country dating back many years. what is your... i know it must be hard to look ahead right now. what is your sense about the

prospects for the country rebuilding itself, getting on its feet again from what you know of the government, of the people, of the culture there? >> well, i think as secretary clinton said the other day, haiti had really turned the corner. we were beginning to see investors come. last time i was here was ten years ago. when i came back in august, i noticed a whole range of positive changes from infrastructure to the service the government was providing to the number of companys on the ground here. this has been a major setback. no question about it. we'll be dealing with the reconstruction efforts from there earthquake for at least several months in the foresee future. but i think the haitian people have had a taste of what it's like to see progress and stability. i feel pretty confident that they won't forget what that tastes like. i think they'll be ready to move forward in a positive

direction again soon after this reconstruction process is over. >> brown: ambassador kenneth merten, thanks so much for talking to us and good luck. >> my pleasure. thank you very much. >> suarez: now, the haiti earthquake and a big rise in donations. the "chronicle of philanthropy" reported today that donors have contributed more than $150 million to u.s. relief groups in the first four days. that's a record. one new phenomenon playing a role this time: giving by texting. newshour correspondent tom bearden has our report. >> reporter: there's a big new player in charitable giving: the cell phone. even first lady michelle obama is promoting it. >> we can all do something. donate $10 by texting haiti to 90999. >> reporter: using text messaging to raise money for nonprofit organizations is relatively new in this country but it seems to have taken hold as a quick and easy way to respond to the haiti disaster. in just six days over 21

million dollars was raised for the american red cross from text messages alone. >> it's been humbling. it's been overwhelming. a million-plus americans responding with a $10 donation. >> reporter: tony is the co-founder of the country's largest mobile fund raising company. after seeing cellular technologies used for charities in europe the founders of m-give began working with organizations here to spur more spontaneous giving. and then last week, just hours after the haiti quake happened the u.s. state department contacted m-give, asking if it would coordinate a text donation campaign for the american red cross. he explained how the donation process works. >> in this case it's text the word haiti to the number 90999. so haiti is the body of the text message and 90999 is the number you're sending it too. the mobile user gets a response text message asking them to reply yes to confirm

their donation. once they do, that triggers a billing event. their mobile phone bill is tagged with a $10 donation. they actually pay that donation to their wireless carrier the next time they pay their bill. >> reporter: the cell phone companies then pay that money to m-give which distributes it to the appropriate charity. neither the carriers nor m-give receive any portion of the donation. m-give normally charges charities a monthly fee but it's waived that for the haiti campaign. other companies providing texting support for haiti relief efforts include wireless factory and the mobile giving found foundation among others. nonprofit organizations which use the technology say it makes giving extremely easy. denver businessman john meredith said he made a donation while walking his dog. >> i got a text message that said please donate $10 to the haiti relief fund. all i had to do is respond to the text which i did. it was very simple.

it took me less than five seconds to do that. >> reporter: lindsey taylor said she responded to a message from a friend on face book. >> i like that it was easy to spread too. a lot of people are texting these days. it's a new fad. that's catching on. probably it will be around for a while. >> reporter: unfortunately the whole payment process isn't quite as quick as punching a few buttons on the cell phone. charities don't usually receive any money until people pay their cell phone bills. sometimes that can be as long as three months. >> in this case we're facing a disaster of epic proportions. i think everybody within the mobile giving eco system including the carriers recognizes the need to get dollars down there as quickly as possible. >> reporter: some of the carriers have said they will now advance the money before the bills are paid. as for questions of accountability, m-give says it only handles reputable charities which must also be approved by the phone companies that process the transactions. plus texting does not involve giving out credit card information.

>> think about it. you're sending the word haiti to 90999. that's much different than communicating critical financial information over the digital network. >> reporter: while the majority of organizations collecting money for haiti are legitimate, the f.b.i. has warned donors to watch out for bogus on-line and telemarketing campaigns. >> suarez: and for more about this and related issues, we are joined by stacy palmer, the editor of the "chronicle of philanthropy." stacey, there have been natural disasters. there have been humanitarian crises in the age of the cell phone. why the different response this time? >> one reason is that people are really comfortable doing text messages. they haven't been for a while. it's been popular in europe but not so popular here. the charities have gotten good at doing it. and the cost has gone down so the charity is getting a lot more money than it used to get. that's one reason that everybody is expecting texting to take off. i think one of the things we're going to see now is that every charity is going to be raising money this way. >> suarez: is there a good ballpark figure on how much

has been given by text and what portion that represents of the entire donation so far? >> it's still a relatively small amount. so far we're seeing that the red cross said today they had $21 million. now we're up to $200 million that has been donated to haiti. it's huge in terms of anything we've ever seen before but it's still a relatively small percentage of all donations. >> suarez: i don't want to do a wallet biopsy is the people we profiled but what if they were really capable of giving $25 or $50 or might have otherwise given more? does the ease with which this $10 goes out perhaps pick your own pocket down the road when you're trying to raise money? people may feel, hey, i already did my thing for haiti. >> that's exactly the question all these donations have been small donations, $10 or so. haiti is going to need a lot more. people are going to be asked to give again. hopefully people will say i need to give again in other ways. so the charitys are going to come back and solicit in lots of different ways and try to

encourage people to give. it is a downside that people might think, well, i've already done my part. >> suarez: is there shrinkage on the gift, just to further what we heard in tom's report? does the whole $10 make it to the end recipient and in all cases? >> it depends on what arrangement the charity has made with the person who is processing the donation. it usually does take a little bit of money to get the money where it's intended. so everybody should expect a little bit of overhead but in the haiti situation, almost everybody is waiving. credit card companies if you give to certain charities they're waiving their fees entirely. everybody is doing their part to pitch in in this horrible disaster. >> suarez: there's been a lot of attention paid to the musician. what are the questions? do his books pass the tests that you use when you'relñ assessing the works of charities? >> one of the things that people have been doing is looking very carefully at how he's done his accounting and

how he's filed some of his tax forms. a lot of experts who were interviewed today say they think that they were just a little bit tardy and not so careful with their books but no maliciousness or wrongdoing. it's hard to the get to the bottom of this. it looks like what happens is when the charity is a young charity not too sperned and hasn't necessarily done all of the right things. but i don't think there's any serious wrongdoing. today he very much said that. defiptly in a press conference that there was no wrongdoing. he did not personally benefit from the charity which is one of the charges that was made against him. >> suarez: what questions should you ask about a charity when considering where your gift should go? what are some of the metrics that your organization uses to figure out whether a donation is really being used properly or not? >> one of the most important things to look at is does the charity have experience working in a place like haiti? that's the most important research thing you can do. have they already done things? do they have a track record? you can look at things too. there are plenty of websites that say how much overhead cost does the charity provide?

really you want to look at results. what is it that the charity has accomplished? have they been there before? this is not a tragedy where people can parachute in and do good no matter how experienced they are. they have to have relationship s with the community. that's probably the most important thing that experienced thing to look at. >> suarez: quickly and conversely, what should raise your suspicions? what kinds of pitches should you be wary of. >> some of the pitches that say 100% of your donation goes to charity. that is too good to be true. links in email, people you don't know. go to the website. goog google it yourself. a lot of people will do copycat things. they'll play on name of the charity. if you're being pressured into giving don't give. that's a sign of a charity that's not doing the right thing. >> suarez: stacey palmer, thanks a lot. >> brown: and still to come on the newshour, a series of attacks on government buildings in kabul; a surprise down-to- the-wire senate race in massachusetts; and a martin luther king day book conversation on black power.

>> suarez: that follows the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: five americans made an appearance before a special anti-terrorism court in pakistan today, and said they've been tortured. the men-- all young muslims from the washington, d.c., area-- have been in custody since december on suspicion of planning attacks inside pakistan. as their prison van drove by reporters, they shouted, "we're being tortured." prison officials and police refuted those claims. the president of ukraine, victor yushchenko, was eliminated from that country's presidential contest over the weekend. he was one of the architects of the so-called "orange revolution" five years ago, but won only 5% in the first round of voting. opposition leader viktor yanukovich, who lost the presidency to yuschenko in 2005, had the lead. his closest challenger was prime minister and orange heroine yulia tymoshenko. they will face each other in a runoff set for february 7. in chile, sunday's presidential election brought the first political shift to the right

since general augusto pinochet's dictatorship ended in 1990. sebastian pinera, a billionaire conservative, won almost 52% of the runoff vote. his supporters rallied in streets across the country. pinera campaigned on a vow to overhaul the chilean state, create a million jobs, and boost economic growth. the man who shot pope john paul ii nearly 30 years ago was released from a turkish prison today. he was freed after serving out his full prison term for attempting to assassinate the pope. the 52-year-old was swarmed by media as he distributed a statement proclaiming the end of the world and calling himself a messenger of god. turkish officials plan to monitor him over concerns about his mental health. martin luther king, jr. was remembered across the u.s. today. in atlanta, the annual memorial service was held at ebenezer baptist church, where the slain civil rights leader preached for eight years. marches to honor his legacy were

held no matter the weather, from detroit to raleigh, north carolina to los angeles. and in washington, president obama and his family marked the national day of service by serving lunch to the needy. later, the president called on americans to help their communities all year long. >> part of what the civil rights movement was all about was changing people's hearts and minds and breaking out of old customs and old habits. that's, i think, an important lesson for all of us on this day. are there things that we can try to do that might have seemed impossible but we know are worth doing and can we apply those principles that we know to be true in our own lives and in our society? >> sreenivasan: yesterday, president obama spoke at a baptist church in washington to remember the work of doctor king. he urged people to keep faith, especially in hard times. those are some of the day's main stories. i'll be back at the end of the program with a preview of what

you'll find tonight on the newshour's web site. but for now, back to ray. >> suarez: in afghanistan today, the taliban once again demonstrated its deadly reach. margaret warner has that story. >> warner: explosions rocked the city this morning, and smoke billowed into the sky. taliban gunmen, some in suicide vests, struck the heart of the capitol with a series of brazen, well coordinated attacks. they detonated bombs at multiple targets in a well secured area of government ministries, shops and hotels and did so with deadly force. this iranian reporter was covering the carnage but moments later at an in-town shopping mall civilians were hurriedly evacuated as afghan police took on the militants and seized it. the fighting raged citywide for nearly five hours. today's grizzly attacks came just as afghan president karzai was swearing in members of his new cabinet.

ambassador richard holbrook, u.s. special envoy to the region who just left kabul hours earlier told reporters in india that he wasn't surprised. >> they're ruthless. the people who are doing this certainly will not survive the attack nor will they succeed. but we can expect this sort of thing on a regular basis. >> warner: the taliban claims responsibility for today's attacks telling the associated press they had sent 20 militants to do the job. it was the militants' answer to karzai's recently renewed offer of reconciliation with the taliban said the u.s. institute of peace. >> the taliban spokesperson said today in claiming responsibility for the attack that they were trying to undermine or disrupt the notion that the taliban could be bought off, that they could be lured off the battlefield and instead to demonstrate that they are united and they are committed to their cause. they sent these suicide bomber into the heart of kabul. >> warner: nato officials

pinned the attacks on the network, an al qaeda linked taliban faction. it's also implicated in last month's suicide bombing inside a u.s. outpost that killed seven c.i.a. personnel. at a news conference later in kabul, the country's intelligence chief struck a defiant note. >> today's attack was in no way attacks on the enemy. they cannot claim for entering into a shopping mall and just blindly shooting at the civilians. that will further strengthen the will and determination of our people to know what they are. that will rally more support for the afghan security forces. >> warner: the assault not only marred the karzai cabinet swearing-in. it came just ten days before a major international conference on afghanistan in london. where karzai hoped to demonstrate greater competence in governing and security. instead the world saw that

despite the ongoing surge of more u.s. forces, the taliban can still plan and execute attacks at will. retired colonel david lamb, the former chief of staff of coalition operations in afghanistan, said even though just a dozen people died, the damage is far greater. >> if you're taliban and your tactic is to show that to this rather inept government that they can't parts inside the capitol from a psychological perspective it's a worrisome attack snis a spokesman in kabul prasesed their afghan counterpart for acting aggressively to contain the attacks. >> at the end, it demonstrates by the way the afghan national security forces are dealing with the operation, they still can deliver the experience that they have to be able to deal with the event. to charge and neutralize the

insurgents into to bring security back to kabul. >> warner: but lamb said the fact that the afghans hadn't been able to neutralize the attackers before they struck, despite intelligence warnings, was worrisome. >> they reacted while. but their intelligence prep and their ability to interdict this attack was less than satisfactory from the perspective of the national security forces in afghanistan they're going to have to really take another second look at their intelligence. even now inside the capital where intelligence had been pretty good on interdicting these sorts of things. >> warner: a member of the afghan parliament echoed that sentiment. >> i think it shows that still we are not really cooperating well with each other. >> warner: late today the afghan security ministry said at least seven attackers were dead. the city with the assistance of nato forces was secure, but it had the feel of a capital

in lockdown. >> brown: now to that surprising senate race in massachusetts. the vote to fill the vacancy left by the death of democratic icon edward kennedy comes tomorrow. and what was once assumed to be a certain victory by democrat martha coakley is now anything but, as polls show support for republican state senator scott brown has surged in recent days. last-minute strategies were on display today, first in this new coakley ad, with some star support. >> martha knows the struggles massachusetts working families face because she's lived those struggles. she's fought for the people of massachusetts every single day as attorney general. she took on wall street and recovered millions for massachusetts tax payers. she went after big insurance companies, took on predatory lenders. that's what martha cokely is about. every vote matters. every vote matters.

we need you. on tuesday. >> brown: and this web video from the brown >> brown: this web video from the brown campaign highlighted some of his appeal. >> i am enthusiastically supporting scott brown because this is all about america, our freedom, our security, our money. god bless america. go, scott brown! >> massachusetts does not want the trillion dollar obama health care that being forced on american people. as the 41st senator i will make sure we do it better. >> brown: joining me now from boston is fred tice, political reporter for public radio station wbur. fred, outside the state massachusetts, of course, has a reputation as a strongly liberal and democratic place. how much of a surprise is this there? >> it's a huge shock here. a month ago no one would have predicted that scott brown would be so close to perhaps

winning this election tomorrow. >> brown: where is the flurry of support for scott brown coming from? tell us a little bit more about his supporters and what issues are really hitting him? >> i spent some time, i've been spending a lot of time going around with both candidates. what i notice at the scott brown rallies is there are people who are just curious. there are people who have been turned off by the negative advertising they see as coming from the democratic side. basically questioning scott brown's record on a number of issues. and then there are the die-hard republicans. there are the tea party-ers. i think there are also people who just feel like they're just frustrated. they want to have a voice. i was at a rally in a town called middle breaux on saturday night. a small rally that grew into a rather large one. one man gave me a whole bunch

of reasons for supporting scott brown. but in the end he said but you know what? i'm really just here because i matter. i want washington to know that i matter. that said, the issues that most people seem to bring up at the brown rallies are health care and they feel that the health care legislation has moved too quickly through congress. they also talk about how they feel that there's been too much spending going on in washington. they're concerned about the deficit. >> brown: what about attorney general martha cokely now finding herself in this position? she no doubt didn't expect to be there. is she appealing to any of these independents or really now focusing on her democratic base? >> she is not trying to appeal to independents. she is very much focusing on that democratic base trying to energize it and making sure that they go out to vote tomorrow. the democrats do have a 3-to-1 advantage over republicans in massachusetts. but between the two parties,

registered voters registered for either party are still slightly less than half of all the registered voters. most voters are independent voters. >> brown: i gather she's also been hurt by recent gaffes including one that may confuse outsiders to the state. but curt schilling, the former red sox hero. tell us about that? >> on friday night, martha cokely was on a talk show on wbz here. it's the all news commercial radio station. she was asked if the... the fact that president obama was going to come to visit massachusetts to support her was a sign that the election was tight. she replied that the fact that former new york mayor rudy giuliani had come in to the state to campaign for scott brown was a sign that the election is tight. and then she said but then again giuliani is a yankees' fan to which the host said, yes, but scott brown has curt schilling, a red sox' star pitcher curt schilling.

he threw the 2004 victory of the red sox in the world series. former red sox' pitcher. martha cokely said, yes, but he's a yankees' fan too. her campaign says this was a joke. so we don't really know. >> brown: but being from there i know that means a lot there. >> it does. curt schilling is making robo calls to independent voters saying this shows that martha cokely is out of touch with massachusetts. >> brown: it seems that both sides are appealing to that kennedy mantel but in different ways. the democrat talking about health care. teddy kennedy. and the republican talking about j.f.k. >> yes. scott brown started out with an ad this year, his first tv ad of the general election campaign actually in which you see john kennedy talking about a tax cut that he offered to

get the economy going out of a recession. he morphs into scott brown talking about his proposal for a tax cut. democrats here took umbrage at that. >> brown: you'd normally expect a low turnout in a mid- sony lex especially a cold winter january day. is this now all about get out the vote for both sides. >> very much so. it appears that the democrats are energized by the closeness of the race. getting as i was going to cokely events this weekend. marriagely these were volunteers who wanted to be... who wanted to get a pep talk from coakley so they could get the people they knew to go out and vote. they're all telling me that they're energized. the question is whether all those people who show up at the scott brown rallies-- and there are a lot of people-- will turn out tomorrow. whether the independent voters are energized enough to show

up and vote. it appears for scott brown. >> brown: fred tice of wbur boston, thanks very much. >> glad to do it. >> suarez: finally, on this martin luther king day, a look at the movement the civil rights era sparked. "dark days, bright nights: from black power to barack obama" is the new book by peniel joseph, professor of history at tufts university, and a newshour regular. i spoke with him earlier on the historic streetcar on washington d.c. at the african- american civil war museum. welcome back to the program. >> thank you for having me. >> suarez: let's begin with the phrase "black power." when did it first gain currency and who was it who was using it? >> well, it's a phrase coming out of the 1960s and really coming out of the civil rights era. stokely car michael was a

civil rights activist who first used the term in greenwood, mississippi, on june 16, 1966. for car michael he really was referring to political self-determination. he felt that black people needed political, social, economic, self-determination if they were going to really exercise their democratic rights in the country. >> suarez: didn't that phrase carry a kind of electric charge thatity lis ited a reaction not only from black people but when white americans as well. >> absolutely. as soon as car michael says it, it becomes a racial controversy. it becomes a national controversy. it will be perceived as fomenting violence and anti-white, as really the opposite of civil rights and dr. king's dream of the beloved community. >> suarez: i know how people heard it. what did stokely car michael mean when he used the phrase black power? >> car michael was really one of the few civil rights activists to become a black power militant. car michael had been a grass roots organizer in mississippi and alabama.

for him black power meant actually exercising the voting rights and the citizenship rights that he had struggled to organize along with many other civil rights activists during the first half of the 1960s. so it meant black elected officials. it meant black political leaders but it also meant community control of schools. it meant a different definition of black identity. before this period african- americans were really called negros or referred to as people of color. it's after the black power period that they're referred to as black or african-american by the 1980s. >> suarez: the book reminds us of parts of this story that we sometimes forget because the history of this era gets smoothed over. weren't there many strands of opinion about how to proceed, what the best approach was, what the tactics were to achieve black liberation? >> absolutely. when we think about our civil rights history and the history of the 1960s and '70s in a way

we flatten that story to a story about rosa parks, martin luther king, the voting rights act and the "i have a dream" speech. peel like malcolm x and stokely car michael added their voices to that period of time. they were really voices of trying to transform american democracy but... and at times in combative ways. >> suarez: how do you take us as a they're rate frr the foment of the '60s to the election of barack obama? >> well, when we think about obama. obama is very, very important. he's usually connected to the civil rights movement. obama himself talked about the joshua generation. he said that his generation was the generation after the moses generation which was the king generation. one of the things i argue is that when we look at barack obama, he grew up politically at least in chicago. that's harold washington's city. harold washington was the first black mayor of chicago elected in 1983. against the conservative back drop of ronald reagan's

america in 1980 there are really rays of light in harold washington's chicago which inspires jesse jkson to run for president in 1984 and '88. so chicago and jesse jackson really impact the country's evolution from black power to barack obama. the jackson campaign is a very interesting one because it's those campaigns that change the democratic party's primary rules to proportional representation from a winner- take-all system. without the jackson campaign, hillary clinton would have been the democratic party's nominee in 2008. >> suarez: the chicago that schools barack obama in politics is not only harold washington's chicago, it's also jesse jackson's chicago and louis fair kahn's chicago, the johnson family of ebony and jet magazine. aren't a lot of different ways of being black in america proposed during this era? >> absolutely. another person in chicago that is rev. jeremiah wright.

barack obama is in his trinity united church for 20 years. i think that's a very interesting example of johnson's chicago, louis fair kahn's chicago, area my a wright's chicago. obama takes all that in. he doesn't embrace all aspects of it but he takes it all in and becomes more rooted in african-american culture than at any other time in his life. by the time we see him on stage as a candidate in 2008, even his very deliverance of speeches at black churches, the way in which he walks, sometimes people in the african-american community will say that obama walk s with a swagger. all that is from chicago and his time in chicago. really what's interesting is that it's the black power movement self-determination to get black faces in higher places that really leads obama to even try to run for president because, remember, obama initially is not embraced by the civil rights generation, people like john lewis, vernon jordan, andy young. these are all people who were

part of that civil rights movement but didn't think the country was prepared to elect an african-american president. so in a way when we think about black power and barack obama, obama really reflects a kind of moderate and pragmatic strain of that movement. but you cover this in the book. >> suarez: isn't there sort of a central argument that goes all the way back to the 19th century when you're talking about booker t. washington or w.e.b.dubois or marcus garvey or malcolm x and martin luther king, whether black americans ask for their freedom or whether they seize it and make it theirs. and where does barack obama fit in that age-old debate? >> i think he has one foot in both camps which is what makes him so interesting and so unique. on one level it's whole rhetorical embrace of democracy during the campaign is firmly rooted in this notion of acceptance and waiting and patience. but on another level being a junior senator from illinois and saying you're going to throw your hat in the ring and

aggressively pursue the presidency is rooted in that other really much more ambitious self-determination camp to try and just really take the american dream and claim it and own it and utilize the power of the highest office in the land to try to transform american democracy. >> suarez: professor joseph, good to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> brown: again the major developments of the day. more aid and more troops >> brown: again, the major developments of the day. more troops and aid arrived in haiti, but a transportation bottleneck and bureaucratic confusion persisted. former president bill clinton also visited. i brought additional supplies and met patients at a working hospital in port-au-prince. he promised delivery of medicines and much-needed generators. the u.s. ambassador to haiti, kenneth merten, told the newshour looting in port-au- prince is limited and the majority of haitians are acting peacefully. and in pakistan, five americans made an appearance before a special anti-terrorism court and said they've been tortured while in captivity.

the newshour is always online. hari sreenivasan, in our newsroom, previews what's there. hari? >> sreenivasan: there's much more about haiti. bob poff of the salvation army describes the struggle to get aid into the hands of earthquake victims. and historian madison smartt bell discusses how haitians have survived previous crises, and how that spirit may help them rebuild this time. plus, an on-the-ground report about yesterday's elections in ukraine, and analysis of what the results say about that country's 2004 orange revolution. and on paul solman's "making sense" page, nobel prize-winning economist paul krugman weighs in on how the u.s. should approach financial reform. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. jeff? >> brown: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm jeffrey brown. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by:

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